Boris Johnson defends Britain's global role and free markets at Conervative Party Conference

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Alys Key

Boris Johnson said Britain should have a "global role" in the future, defending the UK's foreign policy in a speech at the Conservative Party Conference today.

Urging conference to "be bold", the foreign secretary told conference that there was appetite for Britain to play a greater role on the international stage, and that the country was "committed as team players and - where necessary - leaders" in global development.

"It is time to stop treating the referendum result as though it were a plague of boils or a murrain on our cattle or an inexplicable aberration by 17.4 m people," he said "It is time to be bold, and to seize the opportunities and there is no country better placed than Britain."

He also criticised Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for his approach to foreign policy.

"That Nato bashing, trident scrapping, would-be abolisher of the British army whose first instinct in the event of almost any international outrage or disaster is to upend the analysis until he can find a way of blaming British foreign policy."

Drawing laughs from the audience, he claimed: "We want a Britain that works for everyone. Corbyn wants a Britain where everyone works for the government."

He also stuck the knife into the media for being "slightly less than cheerful", alluding to the Financial Times in particular by saying: "Every day a pink newspaper makes Eeyore look positively exuberant."

Johnson attributed the success of developing countries to the Conservative ideals of free markets and deregulation. Defending these ideals, he said that market economics was "the only sustainable way to create the wealth we will always need to help the poorest."